Text of the monthly STATE OF THE NATION Press Briefing by United Action for Democracy (UAD), held in Lagos, Wednesday, July 1st 2009
INTRODUCTION: Comrade journalists, you are welcome to this press briefing, which I considered the valedictory briefing for some of us in the leadership of the organization, whose maximum 2 years-2 terms tenure is due by the next Convention of our organization on July 10 - 12, 2009.
This press conference is to address the following issues:
1. UAD 7TH NATIONAL CONVENTION;
2. UAD SUPPORTS FOR ASUU STRIKE;
3. AT STAKE IN THE NIGER DELTA IS SELF-DETERMINATION, AND NOT AMNESTY; and
4. THE STRUGGLE FOR SYSTEM CHANGE MUST CONTINUE
1. UAD HOLDS 7TH NATIONAL CONVENTION
The United Action for Democracy (UAD) hereby notifies you and the public of its 7th National Convention, which is scheduled to hold on July 10 – 12, 2009 at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Teachers’ House, Akure, Ondo State .
The Convention will be attended by the more than 30 affiliates, delegates from the zonal and state branches of our organization across the country
The major agenda of the 7th Convention is to examine and take far reaching positions on the State of the Nation, State of the UAD; consider constitutional amendment proposals and elect new officers to run the organization foe the next two years.
2. UAD SUPPORTS THE ASUU STRIKE
· The United Action for Democracy (UAD) supports the ongoing total and indefinite strike declared by the Academic Staff of Universities (ASUU) which commenced on June 22nd 2009. UAD is in full agreement with the positions by the National Executive Council (NEC) of ASUU in declaring the strike, and we commend the union for its consistency and commitment to saving public education in Nigeria .
· We recall that the agreement in question, which this anti-people Yar’Adua regime is refusing to sign, was a product of more than two years of negotiation between ASUU and the Federal Government (FG) and was concluded in December 2008. This was despite a 2-weeks warning strike declared by ASUU on May 31st 2009 to make the inhuman regime to reason.
· The current state of the 93 universities in the country is to say the least appalling in terms of inadequate staffing, poor and inadequate infrastructure, poor remuneration, lacking research grants, state and administrative highhandedness, etc. An ivory tower whose environment is not conducive for learning cannot be expected to compete in standards with other well funded and managed universities in Africa and across the globe. Instead, such university system as is the case in Nigeria will continue to engender ¼ baked graduates, brain-drains, campus cult violence, poor manpower development, authoritarian and warped values system and general insecurity.
· Rather than respond to the genuine demands of ASUU, the failed Yarâ'Adua regime has began a campaign to discredit and undermine these germane demands, in the same way it did with the demand by primary and secondary school teachers for Teachers’ Salary Structure (TSS), which most state governments are yet to honour. The regime’s floated propaganda that ASUU wants N78b smacks of falsehoods, makes mockery of its Nigeria ’s re-branding agenda, and begs the issue.
· It is instructive to note that political office holders (comprising 469 National Assembly members, 472 from the federal executives, 36 Governors and their 2,664 officials, and 1,152 officials of the 36 State Assemblies) in the guise of salaries, car maintenance allowance, wardrobe allowance, utility and entertainment allowances, etc. cost the economy more than N1.2trillion annually. This is aside from the sitting allowances, travel allowances, constituency allowances and public hearings per-diem, etc. Yet the 93 universities with just about 13,000 staffs receive poor funding.
·UAD has consistently maintained that the decadence in the Nigerian universities can only be overcome by a just system that appreciates education as a fundamental necessity for all citizens and will therefore genuinely be responsive to the decades of demand by ASUU for adequate funding, and autonomy in the administration of the university system. It is the regime of neo-liberalism which pursues commercialization and deregulation of the education that is responsible the decades of poor funding and neglect of the university system and the falling standard of education.
· Therefore, UAD calls on the leadership of the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO) to mobilise all the working people and civil society organisations for a nationwide solidarity strike/mass protests with ASUU.
· It is important that LASCO mobilizes Nigerians to join forces with ASUU to restore academic standard and qualitative production of knowledge because of the insensitivity and disrespect by this regime to collective agreements despite its claim to respecting the rule of law. The issue is clear, GOVERNMENT SHOULD SIGN THE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT REACHED. Therefore, the National Assembly, parents, students and all those who cherish human progress should appeal to the deceptive Yar’Adua regime to sign the agreement.
3. THE AMNESTY WILL NOT WORK! WHAT IS AT STAKE IS SELF-DETERMINATION!!
·UAD wishes to alert Nigerians and the international community that the purported unconditional but conditional amnesty granted by the FG on June 25, 2009 to those it labeled as ‘militants’ amounts to another public relations gimmick that is doomed from the onset. It is a hurried concoction to placate the ‘militants’ who have been criminalized by the political criminals in power; because FG’s retinue of agents are desperate to resume the oil theft in the region since the JTF agenda to wipe out the militants has failed.
· The purported amnesty further exposes the insincerity of the regime, its directionless and insensitivity on the Niger Delta. Suffice to recall that the regime first pronouncement was resolving the Niger Delta problem in 100 days of office, yet 700 days since May 29, 2007, the crisis is escalating. Second was the 2008 budgetary vote of N400b to maintain security in the region. Third, was the Gambari Reconciliatory Committee which could not takeoff because of public resistance. Fourth, the lack of what to do with the Ledum Mitte led Niger Delta Technical Committee. Fifth, the Ministry of Niger Delta, which is but another cosmetic reaction to undermine the legitimate quest for political and fiscal autonomy.
· The UAD wishes to state that the issue of Niger Delta is a history of unresolved question of political and socio-economic injustices since the pre-1960 independence’s negotiation, which the 1958 Willink Commission strongly recommended should be resolved before independence. Rather, the FG from 1960 opted to exploit, deprive, neglect and repress the people in the region. Whatever concession that has come the way of the Niger Delta (whether as 13% derivation, NDDC, Ministry of Niger Delta, Vice presidency, etc.) has been through hard-fought struggles that claimed the lives of several patriots – Adaka Boro, Ken Saro Wiwa and the 8 other Ogonis, people of Odi and of course the latest genocide committed against the people of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Delta State.
· While we in the UAD acknowledge that the victims of the low intensity war the Nigerian State has imposed on the Niger Delta people in the last 5 years, has been the working population, innocent women and children; we are convinced the cat-mouse approach packaged as ‘amnesty’ on the Niger Delta issue can never work.
· The issue is about reconciling the Nigerian State with the legitimate demands of the people of Niger Delta for political and socio-economic autonomy. It is not about granting a non-existent pardon, because the ‘militants’ never accepted any wrongs in the first place, thus the renewed grounding of oil exploration in the face of a so-called amnesty.
· Genuine reconciliation will come to Niger Delta if the political rights of the people of Niger Delta are first and foremost respected to elect leaders of their choice not the fraudulent imposition of the Iboris, Odilis, Jonathan et all. Mass employment cannot come the way of the Niger Delta and Nigerians when refineries are not made to work and Nigeria lacks the technical capacity for oil exploration. For us in UAD, the refineries must work, new ones built and the necessary infrastructure for industrial development takeoff are effected, while.
We therefore make the following demands:
- Reject Air Vice-Marshall Ararile Amnesty Committee as a deceit and another avenue for corrupt allocation and looting of public funds.
- Immediate and unconditional withdraw of the genocidal troops called JTF (Joint Task Force) from all the states in the South-South.
- FG must put a STOP to the oil theft being perpetrated by its fronts and collaborators (local and international).
- FG must ensure that oil companies respect the international standards on oil exploration viz. gas flaring, environmental degradation, and prosecute multinational oil companies which continue to despoil the Niger Delta environment, thereby polluting the air, water and land; and flouting international standards.
- Develop the resources environment and create access for human capital development.
- Respect the right of the people in the region as articulated by their various documents such as the Ogoni Bill of Rights, the Ijaw’s Kaiama Declaration in line with the principles defined by the African Charter on self-determination, which Nigeria is a signatory.
4. THE NATION-WIDE RALLIES/PROTESTS AND THE STRUGGLE FOR SYSTEM CHANGE MUST CONTINUE
· The leadership of the UAD has reviewed the LASCO’s led nationwide rallies/protests, which held in Lagos May 13th, Asaba May 15th, Kano June 16th and Maiduguri June 23rd against the Yar’Adua regime planned deregulation of the oil industry; the demand of Nigerian workers for a new National Minimum Wage of N52,200; and the full implementation of the Justice Uwais recommendations on electoral reforms.
· The UAD commends the leadership of LASCO and Nigerians for the massive turnout which further demonstrates while the necessity to organize and mobilize Nigerians for a political alternative. Just immediately after the successful rally/mass protests of May 13th in Lagos , the Yar’Adua regime beat a retreat on its wicked policy of deregulation, and the direct result was the disappearance of queues at filling stations across the country and availability of fuel at the pump price of N65 for petrol.
· We call on LASCO to proceeds with the rallies/mass protests in other venues comprising Enugu , Makurdi, Ibadan and Abuja as a warning signal to the FG that should it fails to accede to these germane demands, Nigerians will be left with no option than to embark on a total strike and civil disobedience.
Comrade ABIODUN AREMU TAIWO OTITOLAYE
Convener General Secretary
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